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I Didn’t Vote…traditionally at least

Yeah, as everyone knows, I voted absentee ballot and I realised that I missed out, slightly, on a piece of interesting history this election. I received untold number of text messages from my friends who know just how politically minded I am, about how they voted in the days leading up to the elections. I awoke this morning around 9:30am with my text message inbox full of forwards admonishing me to vote and also this very funny one:

The Democratic Party is recruiting people to help George Bush pack up his $h!t to go back to Texas. Will you be available on January 20th?”

And other text messages of my friends waking up at the butt crack of dawn as God is merely yawning wiping the sleep crust out of his eyes, to go stand in line. And I also received a touching text from my friend Southern Snob who informed me that she wanted to do a lap around the polling place because she encountered a 70 year old man who had never voted in his LIFE down in Tampa, Florida and he just wanted to make sure he got a vote in for Sen. Barack Obama. And then today at lunch as I was telling that story, another man shared that his 76 year old grandmother had never voted before until today either.

Well, I did absentee ballot.

I got a text from COGIC Uppity last Friday night from Houston that he was waiting in line at the Fiesta (food emporium, lol) on South Main (I still can’t imagine a polling place in a supermarket, but ooookaaayyyyy) and just how it felt to wait in line with other folks. Clearly he was the product of a black church because he texted randomly that he wanted to bust out singing “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing.”

Whatever the case, even my parents did early voting, which was a first for them, and they went down to 43rd and Cottage Grove to the King Rec. Center to stand in some line to vote.

While I did absentee ballot.

Actually, since I’ve been eligible to vote, I’ve always done absentee ballot–I’ve never voted on the “second Tuesday after the first Monday in November” in my assigned precinct back in Chicago. I used to go many times with my parents, even it was a February or March citywide election, but never as a registered voter. I never personally experienced the old church mothers with heavy winter coats hanging on the backs of their chairs looking over glasses perched on the tips of their noses flip through the voter registration book 6 inches thick and check the signature against my drivers license (at least now, it’s computerized with voter rolls).

Instead I did absentee ballot.

Yup, black folk out to vote in Southeast DC--only place in the country your vote doesn't count. Go figure.

Even Soul Jonz informed me that it took FIVE HOURS for him to vote in his precinct up in North Fulton County. I bypassed all of that and just thought how much I HATE standing in lines–even lines at the club, to get food at Wendy’s–I just hate waiting. I figured Providence knew that absentee ballots were the way to go for me, because standing in line most certainly isn’t. However, I must admit, the atmosphere that everyone has described at the polling places seems to be something I may have missed out on.

Alright, it’s about 6pm here on the East Coast, y’all shoulda voted by now if you’re reading this. So, go on ahead and share you’re election story. I’m quite sure if you did early voting you have SOME story to tell about the people you stood hours in line with. Go ahead and let your voices be heard.